Machu Picchu - Lake
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Colca Canyon - Machu
Picchu
Lake Titicaca
(16 days/15 nights)
Archaeological & Ecological
Treasures
Galapagos - Machu Picchu
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Machu Picchu - Galapagos
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Enchanted Isles of the Galapagos
Galapagos
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Galapagos & the Kingdom of Quito
Galapagos - Andes
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Historic Haciendas of the Andes
Cotopaxi - Antisana
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© 2012 Inka's Empire Corporation.
All rights reserved.
Ballestas Islands - Nazca Lines - Paracas Peninsula
Sand dunes, Huacachina
Lagoon.
Photo:
Mylene d'Auriol Stoessel.
The entire Paracas/Nazca portion of the trip was fantastic...
-- Dr. Gregory Denison and Dr. Patricia Garner
Land Price (1 day)
US$ 1,225 per person
The land price includes escorted transfers, semi-private excursions with professional guides, entrance fees, gourmet cuisine (see details), all transportation, and travel insurance for guests through the age of 59 years (over that age, there is a supplementary fee). All prices are per person based on two people sharing a guest room. For a detailed description of our services, see Opulent Itineraries.
Intra-Tour Flights & Fares
Includes Lima - Pisco - Lima charter flight & Nazca Lines overflight.
Geoglyph of a monkey, Nazca.
Photo: Mylene d'Auriol Stoessel.
One of the most baffling enigmas in all of archaeology...
On the southern coast of Peru, Nazca artists etched works of monumental proportion. Using as their canvas a plateau 37 miles long and 15 miles wide, they created a montage of geometric designs and whimsical portrayals of plants and animals, such as the hummingbird, fish, dog, lizard, puma, spider, condor and monkey. This excursion features an overflight of the Nazca Lines and a boat trip to see the amazing profusion of sea life on nearby islands.
Detail of a Paracas Necropolis "manto", c. 500 BC.
Museo Nacional de Arqueologia, Antropologia e Historia del Peru.
Photo: Mylene d'Auriol Stoessel.
Highlights
Lima
Day 1: Lima - Ballestas Islands - Nazca Lines - Lima. Leave at six in the morning on a four-hour drive south to Paracas. Arrival at the Hotel Paracas, on the Pacific Ocean, walk to its dock and embark on a cruise to the Ballestas Islands -- home to colonies of sea lions and thousands of sea birds. A marine ornithologist will be your private guide. After returning to shore, transfer to the Pisco airport for a 1-hour, 40-minute overflight of the Nazca Lines -- one of the most baffling enigmas in all of archaeology. A typical lunch at the Hotel Paracas and time to enjoy the beach or the resort's activities. Drive back to Lima, returning at 6 pm.
Detail of a Paracas Necropolis "manto", c. 500 BC.
Museo Nacional de Arqueologia, Antropologia e Historia del Peru.
Photo: Mylene d'Auriol Stoessel.
Located in the Ica Department of Peru on the southern coast, Nazca is one of the most famous pre-historic cultures of the world on account of the beauty of its polychrome ceramics. The Nazca also left behind original textiles, the techniques and coloring of which have astounded the modern world.
The Paracas Necropolis constitutes the early phase of the Nazca culture, and it is distinguished by the world-famous "mantos" (large, decorated cloth) embroidered with polychrome, mythical figures. Paracas Necropolis is a cemetery located on the slopes of Cerro Colorado, in Ica Department, from which 429 funerary bundles were extracted. Each bundle is a mummy wrapped in abundant fine and rough textile.
-- Justo Caceres Macedo, The Prehispanic Cultures of Peru
Details
Sea lions, Paracas Peninsula.
Photo: Mylene
d'Auriol Stoessel. Luxury Nazca Lines Tours & Travel.
An unspoiled, natural paradise where the desert sands reveal
treasures of ancient civilizations ...
The Paracas Peninsula is the most important coastal formation in Peru -- an unspoiled, natural paradise where the desert sands reveal treasures of ancient civilizations, and the abundance of marine fauna -- birds, fish and sea mammals -- attracts visitors and ecologists, who are amazed by the profusion of sea life along the ocean shore. The Paracas National Reserve encompasses the amazing beauty of the peninsula and the surrounding ocean, including the Ballestas Islands.
Added to its natural beauty, the Paracas National Reserve is the site of the Paracas Necropolis, an important archaeological site of one of the most advanced cultures that flourished in Peru, around 1,000 B.C. Here, archaeologists discovered hundreds of mummy bundles, a few of which are on display in the on-site Julio C. Tello Museum of Paracas civilization. The mummies are covered with the exquisite textiles in the stylized design and combinations of many colors for which this culture is reknowned.
Humboldt penguin, Ballestas Islands.
Photo: Mylene d'Auriol Stoessel. Luxury Nazca Lines Tours & Travel.
Day 1: Lima - Ballestas Islands - Nazca Lines - Lima
Leave at six in the morning on a four-hour drive south to Paracas. In pre-Columbian times, this region was home to the Nazca culture, highly advanced in ceramics and textiles. It excelled not only in art but in technology, as evidenced by a complex system of subterranean aqueducts that still brings water and life to one of the driest deserts on earth.
Arrival at the Hotel Paracas, on the Pacific Ocean, walk to its dock and embark on a cruise to the Ballestas Islands -- rocky formations that are home to colonies of sea lions and thousands of resident and migratory sea birds, including pelicans, boobies, cormorants, terns and gulls. In the summer, condors are also frequent visitors and flamingos occasionally pause at the bay. From the sea, you will observe the Candelabro, also known as Three Crosses, which may be related to the Nazca Lines. A marine ornithologist will be your private guide.
After returning to shore, transfer to the Pisco airport for a 1-hour, 40-minute overflight of the Nazca Lines -- one of the most baffling enigmas in all of archaeology. You will also observe the recently-identified Palpa Lines. Using as their canvas Pampa Coloradan (Red Plains), a plateau 37 miles long and 15 miles wide, Nazca artists etched works of monumental proportion: a montage of geometric designs, or "geoglyphs", and whimsical portrayals of plants and animals such as the hummingbird, fish, dog, lizard, puma, spider, condor and monkey. Figures of birds -- there are 18 different kinds -- create a veritable aviary in this menagerie that prowls the pampa.
Geoglyph of a hummingbird, Nazca.
Photo: Mylene d'Auriol Stoessel.
So similar are the animal drawings to the stylized pottery figures found at nearby burial sites, it is clear the two were linked in time to the major period of Nazca civilization from 200 B.C. to 600 A.D., although some of the more primitive figures on mountain slopes are attributed to the earlier Paracas culture, dating as far back as 900 B.C.
The lines spread over hundreds of square miles and were created by removing the rust-colored stones that cover the desert, revealing the light-colored soil beneath. In this dry, rainless environment, erosion has been practically nil, allowing the markings to endure virtually intact for 1,500 to 2,000 years. A typical lunch at the Hotel Paracas and time to enjoy the beach or the resort's activities. Drive back to Lima, returning at 6 pm.
© 2012 Inka's Empire Corporation, Luxury Peru Tours & Travel. All rights reserved.
